Approaching Non-Literary Texts

Non-literary texts are the everyday, purpose-driven texts that surround us: advertisements, news articles, speeches, brochures, blogs, infographics, cartoons, and more. In English A: Language & Literature, these texts sit at the heart of the "Language" side of the course. Unlike a poem or novel, whose primary aim is often aesthetic or imaginative, a non-literary text usually sets out to inform, persuade, instruct, or connect with a real audience for a practical reason. Learning to approach these texts analytically means reading them the way a detective reads a scene: noticing not only what is said, but how, why, for whom, and to what effect.

What makes a text "non-literary"?

The boundary is not always sharp. A memoir can read like literature; a novelist's essay can feel literary. For IB pu